The millennial cohort is named after a 2000 graduation year and numbers 1.8 billion

Evidence

Neil Howe and William Strauss coined millennial in their 1991 book, Generations, based on the idea that the cohort’s oldest members would graduate high school in 2000. Despite early competition from rival Gen Y, the term became common parlance by Time’s 2013 cover story “The Me Me Me Generation.” By the Obama years, millennials were hard to ignore: At 1.8 billion strong, they were the largest generation of adults on the planet, primed to shape global culture through sheer numbers. — W. David Marx, Blank Space, 305

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines what ‘millennial’ literally names (2000 graduation) and its origin in Strauss-Howe generational theory — key for the reader distinguishing cohort label from actual cultural content.